The two leaders of the World Championship tournament in Mexico,
Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand left their games disappointed on
Sunday after allowing winning positions to slip away to draws.

Playing on Mexico's National Day - which saw a three hour military
parade snake past the tournament venue in the Centro Historico of
Mexico City - only Levon Aronian could convert his advantage,
leaving first and last in the tournament still separated by only a
point.

Kramnik gained half an hour with his quiet 11.a3 move and another
half an hour with the dangerous-looking 13.Qc7. By move 20 Grischuk was
down to 14 minutes on the clock and Kramnik began to take control.

"At some point my position started to get better and better," said
Kramnik, "and sometime around move 37 I was completely winning. The
question is how many wins did I miss? 5, or maybe 7. So of course it is
a big disappointment for me that I did not win this game."

A relieved Grischuk explained his slow play as follows: "I was
really afraid that I would lose my rook on b2 - that's why I spent so
much time. [Then] my position was completely playable but at some point
I started to play really badly. Then I was lost, even after the time
control, but somehow I survived."

Anand was equally harsh on himself - "It's a shame what I did today."

Anand, like Kramnik, outprepared his opponent and was soon ahead
on the board and on the clock. "After 23.Nd5 Bb7 I was a little worse
and after a few more unfortunate moves I was completely lost," said
Morozevich. "I thought that after 23.a4 Nf4 I would lose a piece but of
course I have 24.g3. I really need to play a4."

"[In the end] it was not my achievement that I made a draw,"
Morozevich continued and Anand could only nod in agreement. "After
30...Rc7 it's just winning [for Black]...it's pretty bad technique not
to win this [endgame]."

Anand consoled himself with saying "+1 is not such a bad score,"
but he knew he had missed a big chance to consolidate his position in
the tournament.

The Mexican press continued their theme of questioning the players
about short draws. This time it was Morozevich who was asked, given
that he is "such a creative player" why he does not ask FIDE for Sofia
rules (no draw offers) to be implemented in top tournaments. "Sometimes
I like to take short draws myself," Morozevich replied. "If [people
like me] spend time worrying about regulations, who would play the
games?"

Aronian was rewarded for taking risks in his game agains Leko,
described by the Hungarian as "a nightmare."

In a perfectly ordinary
position Leko carelessly played 27...Bd8 and had no way back after
28.e5!

That f3 square again - White would prefer not to play f4 unless
absolutely necessary. Black's position is now perfectly satisfactory
but Leko was already down to less than half an hour to reach move 40.
"I
spent all my time trying to work out what my opponent wanted," said
Leko. "There was no need to think so long since he didn't want anything
special. [But my clock was the reason] I went for a repetition."

20...Ba8 21.Red1 Nde5 22.Nd2 Ng4 23.Qe2 N4e5 24.f4!?

"Since my tournament was not going so well I felt obliged to
fight, especially with the White pieces; that's why I played 24.f4,"
explained Aronian.

24...Nd7 25.Nf3 Bf6 26.Qe3 Re8 27.Be1 Bd8?

"Levon wanted to fight and that's why he played 24.f4 but it gave
me a wonderful psoition. If I had played 27...Be7 followed by ...Nf6 I
think it is much more easy to play for Black," explained Leko. "It's
like a dream position. White will have to play h3 or g3 but then ...d5
will be hanging in the air."

28.e5! dxe5?

"When I played 27...Bd8 I forgot that after 28...Bc7 White does
not have to take on d6 but plays 29.Ne4! ," said Leko. "Then I have to
play 29...Bxe4 (if 29...d5 just 30.Nc3) 30.Qxe4 and now I play
something like 30...Ndf8 but after 31.Bc3 my pieces are basically
dead.";
Leko suggested that he could try 28...b5 but then 29.Rxd6 seems crushing for White.
"I realised the move I wanted to play [...Bc7] was bad," Leko said, " but the piece sacrifice was the worst possible choice."

29.Rxd7 exf4 30.Qe2 e5 31.Ne4 Be7 32.c5!

Black's only counterplay lies in playing ...f5 and ...e4, but
Aronian makes sure that his e4 knight will always have an attractive
square on d6 to go to if pushed.

32...bxc5 33.bxc5 Bc6 34.Rdd1 Bb5 35.Qb2 Qa7 36.Bxb5 axb5 37.Bf2!

Now the knight cannot be prevented from reaching d6 and the game is effectively over.

"Maybe the long game yesterday didn't help," said the Hungarian
when asked if his 100 move defensive effort yesterday had exhausted
him. "Even so, I shouldn't have had that [lapse] in concentration."

Gelfand held his third Petroff's Defence in four rounds with ease
against Svidler.

"The head-banging against the Petroff wall continues,"
said a disappointed Svidler after the game, "with the same result as
always. After the slightest inaccuracy you have nothing. After16 ...Qd7
I should have played 17.Qd3 keeping queens on the board and at least
then the game continues. With queens off the board Black doesn't even
have to play accurately."

At the post-game press conference Spanish journalist Leontxo
Garcia made the mistake of suggesting that if so many Petroff games
were being seen and being boring, perhaps it was time to turn to
Fischer Random/ Chess 960, where the pieces on the first rank are
shuffled before the start of the game.

Svidler, who had already taken issue with the press conference
MC for translating 'head-banging' as 'a discussion', was not amused -
"There is a time and a place for Chess 960 and it's not here!"

The players will have a rest day on Monday and many questions remain:

Can anyone survive Kramnik's preparation with White? Can anyone
beat Anand's preparation with Black? Will the players stop saying "It's
a really tough tournament - every game is important." at the press
conferences?

However at least one question has been answered: those who
suspected that Kramnik might not play hard in order to avoid a rematch
with Veselin Topalov have already been proven wrong. As the man
himself said, "I want to win the tournament. I am not thinking about
who I play next - I am concentrated fully on this."Ian Rogers is soon leaving Mexico City, so multimedia journalist Macauley Peterson will be taking over as CLO correspondent.